Teen reports luring attempt in Hawthorne

HAWTHORNE – A teenage girl told police she broke free from a man who tried to drag her off by her arm in an apparent abduction attempt, police said.

The incident happened at about 9:05 p.m. Friday at the Wagaraw Road ballfields in the south part of town, Hawthorne Police Capt. Richard McAuliffe said in a press release Saturday.

This is the fourth attempted child luring reported in North Jersey in a week. Similar incidents were reported in Hackensack, Oradell and Maywood.

In the Hawthorne case, a 13-year-old girl, who was at a soccer game, wandered away from her group of friends and walked near a wooded area alone. A man wearing a dark hooded sweat shirt and jeans approached her and told her to come with him, McAuliffe said.

The victim said the man then grabbed her by her arm and tried to walk her toward a parking lot east of the ballfields. She pulled free and fled from the area, uninjured.

“No one saw anybody,” McAuliffe said.

The girl called a friend on her cellphone. The friend told her own father, and the father dialed 911 and set out to meet his daughter’s friend at the park.

The alleged abductor is described as standing approximately 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 10 and weighing 180 pounds. No race, hair color or age range was reported because the girl never got a look at the man’s face, McAuliffe said.

The lack of description is making it difficult for police to determine if this incident is tied to any of the other abduction attempts reported since Oct. 5 in North Jersey, police said.

Hawthorne Police spent Saturday canvassing the neighborhood near the park, knocking on doors and asking people if they saw anything. They are also working with school officials and other law-enforcement agencies, including the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.

A red vehicle was noted in the area, but police are unsure if the vehicle is tied to the incident, McAuliffe said.

Police in Maywood are still investigating an Oct. 5 report of a middle-aged man, about 5 feet tall and weighing 160 pounds, approaching a girl walking on Orchard Place and asking her to come see his puppies.

In Oradell, on Oct. 9 at about 5:25 p.m., an older man in a small gray car approached a 7-year-old girl and her younger brother who were playing in the front yard of their Woodland Avenue home.

And in Hackensack, at about 7:30 a.m. Friday, a man in a Jeep Wrangler asked a boy walking near Union and Sussex streets if he knew where Costco was located. When the boy said he did not, the man asked him to get in his car.

Oradell police showed their victim a sketch of the man suspected in the Maywood incident, but the 7-year-old said he did not look like the same person who approached her.